September 23, 2015
I have loved Neil Diamond music for over 50 years. He is the only entertainer that I have seen
in person 4 times. So, after Donovan, I
started doing ‘Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.’ I love that song and I felt called to
illustrate it. The collage elements were
such fun to do! The tent walls are made
from teabags. Teabags are great for
getting wonderful brown stains which add depth and age. The floorboards are cut from a map of
southern Illinois which were painted with transparent watercolor. Brother Love’s suit is made from pages of a
very damaged Bible that I got at a garage sale for a dime. I really didn’t want to offend anyone by
using actual Bible pages, but it was perfect for his suit and the Bible was in
tatters. The podium and his guitar were
cut from hymnal music pages, also painted with transparent watercolors. The people in the crowd have clothing which
is mostly painted book pages. This piece
is energetic. It is also the reason that
I am creating special labels for each piece in the show. I told a friend about Brother Love and she
said that she did not remember that song.
HOW could anyone not remember Brother Love?!! That got me thinking that my audience might
not know these songs. So I started
searching for small devices to share the music—like those in some greeting
cards. I found some (no, not really
cheap), but I decided that it would add a great pizazz to the show. So I am making labels from old 45 records,
adding my own labels, and putting a push button on the record so that you can
hear a few seconds of each of the songs.
I could not record the entire song because of copyright issues, but you
can get enough of the music to jog your memory.
This is taking a lot of extra time and adding to my expenses, but I
think that it will make the show more enjoyable for the viewers. I am so excited to do this and hope that you
will come, not just to see, but now to hear as well.
